In this age of online shopping, those battling crowds in offline sales are idiots and the folks who co-ordinate these events are bordering on evil.

It sickens me to read that yet another Black Friday has seen violence occurring at some stores running sales.

In one incident, a gun was produced by a guy who had been hit by another while in line at a Sears store and it seems that violence wasn’t confined to males; with gals participating in their fair share of biffo too.

If folks are going to act this way over a discount on video games and cell phones, imagine what they’ll be like in a disaster situation when food or other resources are scarce.

There’s a saying that notes we are only a few square meals away from anarchy – and it’s very true. Incidents like the above demonstrate how thin the veneer of civility can be and just how close we are to returning to the cave.

Of course, Australia has started on the Black Friday binge too. A lot of good ideas come out of the USA – it’s such a shame we try to copy the bad ones too.

What happened to peace, goodwill etc. etc. – Xmas has become a bad freaking joke. Over a decade of working the online world has made me even more opposed to the blasted day and the lead-up to it. I was gobsmacked in 2008 when a Walmart employee *died* in a Black Friday frenzy.

I hear folks moaning about Xmas this year (as always), then like lemmings race for the Christmas cliff. I’m not a religious guy these days, but I can imagine Jesus turning to God and saying “Dad, I was wrong – they really aren’t worth it.”

Thankfully, there’s always Cyber Monday – the online version of Black Friday. If people want to blow a hole in their notebook screen with their Glocks in frustration of a server being overloaded; have at it – with any luck, the gun will explode and the gene pool will be just a tiny bit cleaner and the streets a little safer.